


Gatekeeper of the Underworld

by glittergothfae



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Cute dog is cute, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:06:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22034527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glittergothfae/pseuds/glittergothfae
Summary: A dog shows up at the doorstep of the Devil May Cry office. Dante has no idea what to do and needs help.
Kudos: 32





	Gatekeeper of the Underworld

A small puppy sat in the corner of the Devil May Cry office. His tail wagged adorably as he sat looking at Dante Sparda. An inkling of a happy bark escaped the dog for a moment as the man and dog kept their eyes locked on each other. Considering that Dante was not exactly the best at taking care of himself, the fact of the stray dog which had appeared on the doorstep became an emergency. Granted, he’d never exactly had much of a need to exercise an extensive care routine. A small dog, though… well, dogs couldn’t exactly live on pizza. Could dogs even _have_ pizza, period? Dante got consumed by this tangent for a few moments until the dog barked and tapped his paws on the ground as if impatient about something.

Even though the dog was small _now_ , Dante felt sure he would grow. The dog had to be a puppy; his energy level and the too-big paws and ears gave that away. Using the paws and ears as reference again, Dante guessed that this dog could possibly one day be large enough to stand on his hind legs and put his paws on a human’s shoulders. This puppy also had to be pretty young. To be entirely honest, that was about all Dante could discern from glancing at the little being. He could tell the dog was most likely a mutt. (Please note: Dante is no expert on dog breeds, so this is fairly unsurprising.) However, he did notice that the dog’s ribs were poking out and that meant this new friend needed food. Dante pondered for another moment if dogs could have pizza and decided that if he was unsure, he’d better hold off on giving the dog a slice for now.

Dante began a frantic search for anything he could say was 100% dog safe. He quickly came up empty handed. He also quickly realized he didn’t particularly have enough money to buy all of (or even any period) of the supplies needed when getting a new puppy. He was going to need some form of help. He knew what to do.

Rounding up Nero was easy. The kid saw the puppy and immediately was on board with chipping in to take care of him. He’d even started picking out names. Cerberus, Cinnamon, Fluffy. Dante jokingly suggested naming the dog “Pizza” and Nero just shook his head solemnly and returned to mumbling through other names. Dante wasn’t exactly sure how “Cinnamon” was better than “Pizza,” but he shrugged it off. V, however—V took a bit more convincing. Not much, but more than it took Nero.

“You expect us to take care of a dog which you willingly adopted,” V stated slowly.

“Okay, hold on. The little puppy showed up on the doorstep! What was I gonna do, leave him there? C’mon, I’m not heartless,” Dante replied while cradling the dog.

V continued reading, mumbling along with the words he absorbed. They could convince him to help take care of the dog; all he had to do was realize just how cute their new friend could be. Nero huffed quietly before trying to get V’s attention again.

“V, listen. I know you prefer demons and poetry to small animals—but look at this cute little face!” Nero interjected.

As if on cue, the puppy in question licked Dante’s face and seemingly smiled. V sighed, snapped a book shut, and agreed with a hint of reluctance. (It was easy to tell, though, that V was just as smitten with this cute puppy as Nero and Dante were.)

And thus, the three collectively adopted a dog. Finding a pet store was easy enough. There was a large one not terribly far from the Devil May Cry office. The colorful building promised something fantastic inside.

Dante insisted on holding the dog while they perused the isles. Nero could only pet the little thing for a moment before Dante would point out another toy, piece of clothing, or type of treat he needed to point out. V quietly followed them both, occasionally tempering Dante’s picks with actually reasonable requests.

The problem of Dante’s over-zealous shopping list became overshadowed by the puppy’s need to bark and growl at the other animals inside the store. It seemed that the crew’s new friend was not accustomed to seeing so many other animals in one space. Understandable, considering most other patrons of the store had other dogs or cats which seemed undaunted by this puppy (and thus making the puppy try harder to be noticed). The store employees also took animals to enclosures or to a play area and these were not just cats and dogs. The store offered a wide range of pets and care supplies for each type and species. They hadn’t expected the store to be this full at night.

So, with a sudden renewal of speed, the other two men hastily asked V to collect the items he’d suggested and hurried to the check-out counter. Nero paid as Dante kept trying to calm down the new addition to the team. This proved to be difficult when a pet store employee walked past with a kitten in tow. The kitten and the puppy locked eyes and the barking and accompanying hissing began. Again, keeping the dog relatively calm was difficult, but not altogether impossible. They managed to keep the dog from trying to wriggle away and paid for their chosen items.

When they exited the pet store, a new problem arose. None of them actually knew where the nearest veterinary office was. V wasn’t intimately familiar with pet service providers since he had demons, not true _pets_ per se. Nero and Dante hadn’t had any need for a veterinarian before now either, so they weren’t exactly reliable sources on the subject. After a moment, Nero ran to a phone booth and asked Nico to find the nearest vet and could she please drive them to said vet? She sighed, said three different combinations of swears, and promised to be there as soon as possible.

Like usual, the Devil May Cry van appeared as if it had just come from an extreme sports track. Music poured from the speakers loud enough for the whole crew to hear it coming a mile away. A wheel went slightly airborne as it rounded the corner onto the pet store’s street. From the bench outside of the pet store, Nero could see the driver very clearly. Nico had one hand on the steering wheel, and one hand hanging out to the side with a lit cigarette between the index and middle finger. She snubbed it out on the ground as she quickly exited to pet the dog.

“Aww, what a cute li’l pup!” She drawled in her thick Southern accent. The puppy had calmed down by now and happily licked at Nico’s outstretched hand. She cooed at the dog in a voice that couldn’t quite be described as the way someone coos at a baby, but it came very close to that sound.

Nico continued to scratch behind its ears until Nero reminded her with a joking tone, “Hey, remember that I called you here to take the puppy to the vet, not let you pet it in the parking lot for what feels like eternity.”

Nico snorted and gave the dog one last pat on the head before waving the crew back into the van. Dante got in first with a halfhearted grunt of some sort. V and Nero both entered the van last, waiting to close the door behind Dante and the dog. Dante hesitantly put the dog down onto the floor once he got adjusted into a sitting position. With an adorable little _woof_ , the puppy began to run around and smell his new surroundings.

“Alright, where’d ya find the pup?” Nico asked as she coerced the van forward with a lurch. The poor animal in question yelped and tried to hold his ground as the van shook.

“Outside of the office. Right there on the doorstep,” Dante replied. “No collar. Didn’t seem to be a note or anything. Then again, people usually only leave notes with _babies_. Never heard of people doing that with dogs. He was too cute to just leave outside. So, I brought him inside. But then I realized I didn’t know what to do next, so I rounded up these two—”

“And then y’all called me after buying a buncha dog food, toys, and treats,” She interjected. “Because y’all don’t know where the damn veterinarian is. Two devil hunters and a summoner, trying to take li’l Fido here to the vet. Gotta admit, it’s a bit funnier than I thought it’d be.”

“To be fair, I did not find this dog. I was roped into these shenanigans,” V objects.

Nero laughed. “Nah, you love this dog. You just won’t admit it.”

During the course of their short conversation, the dog had managed to find a small array of things to bite or move which were not toys. The chief of which was one of Nico’s prototypes for a new Devil Breaker. Nero tried to wrestle it away from the puppy as quickly as possible; however, it quickly turned into a game of tug-of-war. The metal clanked enough that it alerted Nico and distracted her from her already rather distracted style of driving.

In a flash, V summoned Griffon and the familiar began to distract the dog. Nico shouted, “Not that thing!” with a groan, but she didn’t press further after she recovered the prototype Devil Breaker.

Griffon harked out a couple of dog-related puns and continued to distract the dog for a little while. The familiar disappeared once Nico brought the van to yet another screeching halt in front of a bland brick building with a sign that proclaimed it to be the veterinary office they were seeking. This time, Nero cuddled the dog as they left the van. Nico promised to wait outside and work on her prototypes while they made sure the dog was in tip-top shape.

Surprisingly, at this time of the evening, the veterinarian office was pretty populated. Which presented the same problem as the pet store in terms of their newest crew member not reacting well to other animals. Nero started babbling to the dog in what was most _definitely_ baby talk. V chuckled and leaned on his cane for balance as Dante had to explain the situation to the receptionist.

When they sat down in the waiting room, all three men had to work together to distract the dog. As other animals went past for their turn to see the vet or moved about in the room, the dog picked it up and started barking. Dante apologized more than once to the older couple beside him who kept glaring daggers at him.

Finally, the boys got called back. Dante have given them the name Cerberus to use for the puppy because the irony of the name was just too strong to ignore. The vet was patient with the three very different personalities of the Devil May Cry crew and informed them that the puppy would be fine. He just needed proper care and a bit of socialization (the vet told them with a laugh that she heard the barking from back in the exam room). They received a kit the veterinarian put together for those who just got a new puppy. Dante realized they probably could’ve come to the vet first since the kit included food, a small toy, and information about “how to care for your new puppy,” but he quickly realized that the whole endeavor had been fun.

With the first check-up done and a heap of toys and treats, the Devil May Cry crew had officially adopted a new member. He’d already shown a fondness for trying to chew on everything and chase Griffon, so he was definitely part of the team.

And despite the half-hearted groans about it being a pun, the name Cerberus stuck.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a gift for the 2nd Circle gift exchange! It was lovely to write something fluffy for a person whose art I enjoy a lot. Hopefully everyone can enjoy this ficlet!


End file.
